Monday, December 28, 2009

I love Christmas. I also love the week after Christmas. It's when you get to start on all the fun things you were putting off until after Christmas.....

I'm separating up the squares for the fall and Christmas swaps. So fun. I LOVE swaps. I LOVE doing the work on them. All the giant piles of squares just bring me joy. And I love packaging them up to send out to the swappers.

I'm working on a quilt for my bed. I have the basic block laid out and I'm happy with it, and I've been steadily working on cutting out the squares. I bought the coolest fabric to use for the backing. Very excited about that.

And you'll notice I'm using more of my Michael Miller Word Search. I tell you, I'm obsessed with that fabric.....

And if I didn't have enough to do, I am now compelled to start this project because it seems like a good option for the tons of artwork produced at my house every day.....

I'm getting ready to post 2 things I'm very excited about: my 100th post and a Valentine's swap! And there will be some sort of giveaway on the 100th post.... and I'm going to tell you a little more about why I started this blog. And for those who don't want to read about that, I'll put in some pretty pictures!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Finished! I just finished the binding on my girls' quilt for Christmas. That was the 3rd quilt that had to get done this week.... whew!

This was my I-Spy quilt from the I-Spy swap earlier this year. It was so much fun working with all the different squares. I really enjoyed putting this one together.

These were some of my favorite parts of the quilt. Love the buttons!

and the singing pigs are awesome!

Here's the backing. I had a few extra squares that I put in the middle with a dancing vegetable print on one side and my beets on the other. The dancing vegetables make me laugh, and my older daughter will think they are funny too.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Finished up 2 quilts in the last 24 hours. Not that I'm cutting it close to Christmas or anything..... Yikes! I still have one more to complete before Christmas Eve.

The first one is my first I-Spy quilt. This one isn't staying with me--it's for my cousin Monica's little girls. Monica participated in the I-Spy swap and then commissioned me to make her quilt. It was a lot of fun!

This is one of my favorite squares--the green with black and white shoes!

For the backing, I used a vintage-y kitchen-y print and a beet print. I LOVE the beets. Not sure why.

This one.... well I'm kind of in love with it. It's a jelly roll... wait, no. It's a honey bun. Moda Oh Cherry Oh! Love it. I did a basketweave pattern and then a border. Backed it with the same pattern as the border. The binding was an unrelated red and white dot.

Get out a crock pot. Put the onion soup in the bottom and crush any lumps. Then get out your potatoes and peel about half of them. Cut them into quarters and chunk them in the crock pot. Finely cut about half an onion up. Fill with water to cover them. Let it cook on high for about 2 hours.

Get a slotted spoon. Fish out about 2/3 of the chunks and put them in a bowl--this will be the soup part. Put the other 1/3 on a cutting board (this will be the chunks part--we'll deal with it in a minute).

Put in the stick of butter and the sour cream in the soup part. Add some of the broth from the crock pot, but not all of it. Use a hand mixer on high to blend the soup part. It will start out looking like mashed potatoes. Keep adding broth until it's the consistency you want--a thick soup consistency, a little thicker than tomato soup. If you run out of broth, you can use water. It will work fine.

Back to the 1/3 that we put on the cutting board for chunks. Cut them up. Put them in the soup.

At this point, I usually take out any of the broth that's left over and discard it. Then I put the soup (with chunks) back in the crockpot and leave it on warm until we're ready to eat it.

Then to garnish it: I cook bacon until it's crispy and crumble it, shred cheddar cheese, cut up green onions (scallions). Put this all on top and add a dollop of sour cream if you wish!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Here's a little project I completed today. It's a gift for a friend who just had a baby. The monkey fabric is ultra cuddle from Jo-Ann's (which is 50% off this weekend, by the way, and comes in quite a few fun prints). The cool thing is that it's 2-sided. I appliqued fleece letters using a technique I found online and now can't locate again...

I used red fleece for the binding as well. This was fun and super easy, so I think I'll probably post a tutorial for this when I make the next one. I didn't take step-by-step pics on this one!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I'm planning on finishing my girls' I-Spy quilt in time for Christmas.

Here's the top.

I have the backing.

I even have sufficient batting.

I also have a bunch of responsibilities this week that are going to make sewing a challenge!

So one thing I tried out this time.... I knew I needed a way to break up the sheer busy-ness of this quilt. I did another one for my cousin with sashing, and I liked the way it came out. But I don't like to reproduce anything I've already done..... so this time instead of sashing, I worked in a neutral print (Michael Miller's Word Search in black and cream--the link is to the pastel version, I can't find the black and cream one anywhere.....). I have a crush on that fabric. I think I bought the last of it on the internet (or at least I attempted to) and I'd buy a bolt if I could get my hands on one! Anyway, I added in squares of that fabric to have a "grounding" effect on the quilt. I used 1 square of the Word Search to every 7 or so of the other squares. And Word Search is the only pattern that is repeated in the whole quilt.

P.S. I think we should plan on I-SPY SWAP PART 2 in the next few months! It was so much FUN!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Oh, what fun it was to participate in Giveaway Day. I can't believe we had a total of 403 entries on the Moda Wee Play charm pack. Awesome.

The winner of the charm pack was Eleanor:

Eleanor said...I adore Wee Play but started quilting after it was already hard to find so I've only managed to get a few fat quarters here and there. A whole charm pack of it would be the greatest thing ever! Anyway, for the holidays I'm making a fabric pin cushion/sewing caddy out of Christmas Snow Flower fabric. The bright greens and reds will be so cheery while I work on all my projects!December 2, 2009 3:43 PM

And I had a scrap giveaway going at the same time..... for some lovely little Christmas scraps.That winner was Jacque:

Jacque. said...oh! oh! OH! I am making mini-mini quilts...4-5" as tree decorations. These scraps would be PERFECT!!! I made a mini quilt yesterday and I liked it so much that I decided to make bitty ones for extra gifts. I was planning to go to the store later this week for more Christmas fabric. But, I'll wait to see if I am fortunate enough to win this giveaway. You rock!November 29, 2009 10:29 PM

Ladies, I've sent you both e-mails letting you know you are the winner!

Friday, December 4, 2009

You see, I really felt like I HAD to put the lettering on it, but I didn't really want to. For one thing, it was going to take forever! So I'm glad I asked, because most of you guys didn't think the lettering was a good idea. So I left it off. And I'm so pleased with it!

I basted it first, and then went back and zig-zagged around each piece. This was a Bad Idea. I mean, it's going to work out fine, but I'm turning a whole basted quilt around in circles to get around each elf foot.... well, you can imagine.

But it's nearly quilted, and the binding is made, and so.... almost done! So I hope to have a finished picture up soon!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I LOVE crafts that are cheap, easy, fun to do and provide my daughter something to play with. Can't get any better than that, right?

So start with a cookie sheet from the dollar store. Make sure it's a steel one, not aluminum. Magnets won't stick to aluminum.

Then I cut out a tree shape and Mod Podged it to the cookie sheet.

Then coat it with a thick layer of Mod Podge. I think this would look extra cool with the glitter Mod Podge, but I didn't have any on hand....

Now get out your scrapbook paper scraps, your buttons, rhinestones, and some magnet strips.

I cut out some to look like presents, and some to look like ornaments, and one for the star. I glued the paper to cardboard, then stuck magnets on the back and put a layer of mod podge on the top.You can see the magnets on the back. Then I found my glitter glue (also from the dollar store) and embellished the ornaments and made ribbons on the presents. I glued rhinestone hearts to the buttons as well. Here it is, all ready for a little girl to play with!This was so easy to create, it was cheap, and it will store relatively flat when she's not playing with.

My daughter has really enjoyed it. I'm thinking of lots of variations for her to play with!

January 31 & May 22 2011

About Me

I'm a wife to an engineer and a mom to 2 sweet little girls. When I get a little extra time, I love to sew, cook and do crafts. Some of that ends up here on my blog. Thanks so much for stopping by! I love comments, and I try to respond. If you want to contact me directly, you can reach me at wendyleep at gmail dot com.